BCCI making Cricket Australia buckle under pressure, says Paul Marsh

Outgoing chief of the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) Paul Marsh has accused Cricket Australia’s (CA) of buckling under the pressure of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which has made CA a follower rather than a leader on the world stage.

Marsh believes that CA’s tendency to put financial considerations first has led to many decisions being compromised, while he gave CA boss James Sutherland and his team credit for significant gains in Australian cricket on the commercial front and for the recent resurgence of the Test and ODI teams, The Dawn reported.

Marsh said that he had no confidence that an incident such as the infamous Andrew Symonds-Harbhajan Singh ‘Monkeygate’ scandal would be handled differently in 2014 than it was in 2008, when Ricky Ponting’s men felt betrayed by its board in the belief it sought to safeguard India’s tour before supporting a player who had been racially abused.

Marsh said that he feels CA has shown all too often that it would succumb to the threats of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and every time they do this, the BCCI gets stronger.

Marsh said that internationally he sees CA as a follower rather than a leader and this has meant their decisions are compromised by their desire not to upset the BCCI. He added that the CA allows itself to be compromised because they don’t want to risk the money that comes from India.

First Published on August 7, 2014, 5:31 pmLast updated on August 7, 2014, 5:32 pm